Change in Food Labeling Proposed

[Country]

Article here - An 'Energy Star' Label For Food?

The article begins: "The food industry should start from scratch on food labels, with a single symbol rating the overall healthfulness of a product as opposed to details of various nutrients rendered in tiny writing, health advisers said Thursday.

"Food products should earn points based on calories, sugar, fat, and other nutritional values, the influential Institute of Medicine said. Most Americans cannot make sense of the current boxes and in any case, these labels are clearly having no effect on the epidemics of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes raging among the U.S. population, the institute’s committee said..."

What's everyone's take on this? Sounds like another case of dumbing down to me.

[heidih]

Oh good grief - how in the world would one arrive at a concensus? I already shudder when people assume "no trans fats" = OK or when they are throwing boxes of packaged products in their cart because the fiber percentage is high - yet the cart is devoid of anything unprocessed. A single product is simply an isolated snapshot of your food picture. A pound of bacon as a meal - probably not so healthy; a slice or two of bacon used to cook a boatload of greens = pretty dang healthy in my book.

This would be a waste of resources in my opinion, and highly inaccurate.

[ScoopKW]

Oh good grief - how in the world would one arrive at a concensus? I already shudder when people assume "no trans fats" = OK or when they are throwing boxes of packaged products in their cart because the fiber percentage is high - yet the cart is devoid of anything unprocessed. A single product is simply an isolated snapshot of your food picture. A pound of bacon as a meal - probably not so healthy; a slice or two of bacon used to cook a boatload of greens = pretty dang healthy in my book.

This would be a waste of resources in my opinion, and highly inaccurate.

Greens?

You mean there's a kind of bacon that doesn't come pre-cooked in a box?

While I think the idea is laughable, consider who they're trying to reach -- the fatties with a cart full of Hot Pockets, Cool Ranch Doritos and 2-liters of Coke. AND NOTHING ELSE.

You see them in the market every time you shop. Nobody is getting to these people. Otherwise they wouldn't have a cart full of Hot Pockets, Cool Ranch Doritos and soda.

[Allura]

Ugh, I would hate this. I need to be able to see the ingredients due to the presence of so many hidden sweeteners, and I need to know the specific carb amount. I suppose I would eat healthier without the info, because I couldn't buy anything that wasn't a sigle ingredient, but I'm not a baker, for instance, so I buy my bread at the store. As a diabetic, knowing the carb count of a single slice is important, as is knowing they didn't falsify the number by using an artificial sweetener.

[Darienne]

Not to mention the huge controversy over the role of fats. There are those who think that no-fat half & half is fine, because it has no fat. And no fat cream cheese.

And these are healthy? Some would say so. Some would say not. Who gets to say?

I have yet to see any Canada Food Rules that make sense. Can't speak for the USA.

[annabelle]

I noticed a week or two ago when I was shopping at the dairy case, that the dairy products are color-coded for fat content. I thought this was rather clever and the only reason that I did notice is that I was helping a young Spanish speaking woman select some non-fat milk after she related to me that she could not read English. We had a nice long chat, in Spanglish, and I learned something in the process of helping her to tell the difference between the milk containers she was selecting from.

[pastrygirl]

I'd rather have the information, not some pre-digested ratings system. I can read and do math and don't find food labels confusing at all. If the average American can't compare the nutritional merits of two boxes of cereal, maybe it's time to stop cutting funding for education

I'm not diabetic, but there are a lot of things that I don't like too sweet (cereal, yogurt, fruit juice). It takes very little time to check a few labels for the fewest grams of sugar per serving. Different people have different preferences and needs, a one size points system is not going to fit all.

[Tri2Cook]

If the average American can't compare the nutritional merits of two boxes of cereal, maybe it's time to stop cutting funding for education

Or just cut it altogether and give up if it's really come to that. I think it has almost come to that where I live. A friend at work said the school his daughter attends no longer considers or marks spelling errors in any work other than actual spelling assignments. His daughter is in the 8th grade and their last class reading assignment was... The Monster At The End Of This Book. So yeah, if the labels aren't confusing people now, they will be in a few years and may require a revised system.